Sports

You are currently browsing the archive for the Sports category.

“Their Epic Match…Captured Our Attention In A Way That No Struggle Of Intellect Has Since”

August 29, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports, Videos | Permalink

I’m of two minds about Stephen L. Carter’s arguments in his new Bloomberg essay, “How Bobby Fischer (Briefly) Changed America.” Carter recalls the Fischer-Spassky chess matches of 1972, which became a national sensation, as the last time Americans were interested in complex ideas. There are by far more U.S. citizens right now than ever before who are interested in and capable of complicated thinking, though there are probably many more focused on the basic function of tools rather than challenging content they can deliver. The piece’s opening:

“This summer marks the anniversary of an extraordinary moment in U.S. history: the 1972 match in which the American genius Bobby Fischer defeated the Soviet wizard Boris Spassky for the chess championship of the world.

The battle probably should have been just one more headline in an eventful three months that saw the Watergate burglary, the expulsion of the Soviet military from Egypt and the humiliating dismissal of vice presidential nominee Thomas Eagleton from the Democratic ticket. Somehow the story of Fischer and Spassky and their epic match, which ended 40 years ago this month, captured our attention in a way that no struggle of intellect has since.

The two best players in the world were playing 24 games in Iceland, and everyone paid attention. Strangers who had never picked up a chess piece discussed the match on subway trains. Newspapers put out special editions announcing the results of the games, and vendors hawked them from the corners, shouting out the name of the winner. Book publishers were signing up chess writers by the dozens.

Chess is a very hard game, and what is most remarkable about that summer is that people wanted to play anyway. They wanted their minds stretched, and were willing to work for that reward. The brief period of Fischer’s ascendancy — he quit chess three years later — was perhaps the last era in our nation’s history when this could be said.”

••••••••••

Mike Wallace’s excellent profile of Fischer in 1972, just prior to the showdown with Spassky. Lewis Cohen, the 12-year-old prodigy who loses a game of speed chess to Fischer, may be this guy.

Tags: , , , ,

“He Was Saying That He Had Won”

August 28, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports | Permalink

Life is a fight that’s long and bruising, the score changes regularly yet surprisingly, and no one really wins in the end. And that’s for the fortunate ones. When we’re at our best or worst, it seems like it will go on forever, that no fall or rise is possible. But the sands shift and the tides are unimpressed. We can spend our time marking down who’s leading, but we’re all falling behind.

Two fighters, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, brought out the best and worst in one another. Their three fights in the early 1970s made them legends and made them old. Ali used ugly, racist words to describe his fiercest opponent. It was the Greatest at his lowest. Frazier relished Ali’s eventual physical decline, diminishing himself in the process. They were both winners, but it wasn’t enough–the other had to lose. Ali seemed better about letting go of the feud in later years, but let’s remember that he won two of the fights. From “The Lonesome Death of Smokin’ Joe Frazier,” Tom Junod’s 2011 Esquire piece about the rivalry that couldn’t end on its own terms:

“The only time I ever met Joe Frazier was in downtown Atlanta, outside the arena used as a boxing venue during the 1996 Summer Olympics. The week before, Ali had once again “shocked the world” when he was handed the torch at the opening ceremonies, and then he elicited both pity and awe when he shakily climbed the stairs and ignited the Olympic flame. Despite winning the gold medal in the 1964 Games, Joe wasn’t invited to the stadium that night, and now he was selling T-shirts in a jerryrigged shack outside the boxing arena, just another of the carnie barkers who infested downtown during the games and turned Atlanta into an eyesore. His son Marvis — the former heavyweight contender who had been knocked out as if by a gunshot by a Larry Holmes right hand and then almost killed by Mike Tyson — was working the shack, making change. ‘Hey Joe!’ I said, and walked up to him as my father had 25 years earlier. He held out his hand horizontally, and held it still. ‘Hey Joe!’ I repeated, and Joe, looking at his hand and then at me, said with a familiar smile: ‘Still steady.’

He was saying that he had won. He was saying that while Ali was a rattling relic with Parkinson’s Syndrome, he, Joe Frazier, was still steady, and capable of keeping his hand still. He was saying, above all, that wherever Ali was, he, Joe Frazier, put him there, and that he was vindicated by the split decision handed down by the fullness of time.

Now Joe Frazier is dead, and Muhammad Ali has once again miraculously outlasted him. But that’s the thing about fighting your battles over the fullness of time: You fight when you’re a young man, and you fight until the final bell. You keep fighting when you’re an old man, and you keep fighting to the death.”

Tags: , ,

“For The First Time Ever In Sport, Women Compete Alongside Men For Equal Share Of The Glamour, Prestige And Big-Money Contracts”

August 28, 2012 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

When I posted not too long ago about the reasons why women’s sports have experienced such a boom in America over the last four decades, I was remiss in not mentioning Billie Jean King. In 1974, the tennis star founded the Women’s Sports Foundation, womenSports magazine and became the first female to be a founding partner of a major sports league with World Team Tennis.

Tags:

“I Felt That This Was A Crucial Moment In My Life”

August 26, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports | Permalink

Basketball is the one major sport without antecedent that America invented, the handiwork of Dr. James Naismith, who realized in 1891 that peach baskets could be repurposed. Sean Newell of Deadspin has a post about the notes Naismith wrote after watching the first ever basketball game. It wasn’t always clear, for instance, that the game should begin with a jump ball. The transcript from the auction site that handled the papers:

“The First Game

When Mr. Stubbins brot [sic] up the peach baskets to the gym I secured them on the inside of the railing of the gallery. This was about 10 feet from the floor, one at each end of the gymnasium. I then put the 13 rules on the bulletin board just behind the instructor’s platform, secured a soccer ball and awaited the arrival of the class. I busied myself arranging the apparatus, all the time watching the boys as they arrived to observe their attitude that day. I felt that this was a crucial moment in my life as it meant success or failure of my attempt to hold the interest of the class and devise a new game.

I had neither the advantage of age nor the benefit of experience to help me put this across. But I did then what I have found universally successful since. I gathered the class around the platform and frankly stated the difficulties confronting me-telling them how I tried my best to give them the kind of work I thought suitable for secretarial students, frankly stating that I had made a failure of my attempts to modify games but told them that I had an absolutely new one and asked them to give it a trial assuring them that I thought it would be good.

The class did not show much enthusiasm but followed my lead. I lined them up, called the roll and asked T.D. Patton & E.S. Libby to step out and divide the class into two teams. I then explained what they had to do to make goals, tossed the ball up between the two center men & tried to keep them somewhat near the rules. Most of the fouls were called for running with the ball, though tackling the man with the ball was not uncommon.

If we had rules there must of necessity be some one to interpret and enforce the penalty. Two officials were appointed, one to watch the play with the ball, the other to watch the actions of the players & call the fouls.

We were ready to try out the game but as yet had no goal. I went to Mr. Stubbins, the supt. Of the building, and asked him if he had a couple of boxes about 18 inches square, as I had concluded that the goal must be small enough so that a goal could not be made at every attempt. He replied, ‘No,’ and after a moment’s hesitation he said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I have a couple of peach baskets about that size if they will do you any good.’ I asked him to bring them up to the gym floor-I nailed them to the gallery one at each end and the equipment was ready.

First court, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1891.

We now had a team game with equipment and an objective. The next question that arose was how are we going to start the game? I reviewed the games and found that the intent of the start was to give each side an equal chance of obtaining the ball. In water polo the teams were at each end of the pool and the ball was thrown into the center. I felt that this would not do as two teams rushing at each other would at least make for roughness. The plan of soccer was dismissed as it gave too much opportunity to keep the ball in the hands of the thrower’s team, thus giving them a decided advantage.

I then recalled the method of putting the ball in play in Eng. Rugby when the ball had gone over the side lines. The forward lined up in a row perpendicular to the side line, the teams opposite each other. The umpire with his back to the field threw the ball in between these lines with no chance for determining who would receive it.

I then thought of lining the teams up across the center of the floor and tossing it in between these lines. At this point I had a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach caused by the recollection of events that occurred in such a play. When one of our opponents saw that the opposite side secured the ball he would arrange things in such a way that as the player descended with the ball in his hands over his head his shoulder, elbow or knee was in the spot where his stomach was landing. This again made for roughness.

I then thought that if two men were selected to jump for the ball that it would eliminate roughness and give each side an equal chance.

Again a problem presented itself and no solution appeared. By what line of association it occurred I do not know but I was back in Bennie’s Corners, playing duck on the rock. The whole scene came before me–across the road that led to Walter Gardner’s home was a large rock higher than our knees & larger than a washtub. On this rock one or more would place their ducks-a rock twice as large as our fists. The rest of us stood behind a line about ten feet away from the rock. The object of the game was for ‘it’ to tag one of the boys who was retrieving his duck. He could do this only when his duck was on the rock. It was the object of the men behind the line to knock ‘its’ duck off the rock when he would need to replace it before he could tag anyone.

In throwing at the duck on the rock, I recalled that at times we would throw our duck as hard as we could & thus knock his away some distance. If, however, we were all back of the line and ‘it’ was ready to tag us we would throw our duck in a curve so as to knock his off & ours would fall on the near side & thus be easily retrieved. In this other case the duck was thrown in a curve and accuracy took the place of force. The idea occurred to me that if the goal was horizontal instead of vertical the player would be compelled to throw in a curve and force which made for roughness would be of no value. I then concluded that the goal into which the ball should be thrown would be horizontal. I then thought of a box, somewhat resembling our old rock, into which the ball should be tossed. It then occurred to me that the team would form a nine man defense around the goal & it would be impossible to make a goal. The shot would need to be highly arched to win any chance of entering the goal.

It then occurred to me that if the ball did not need to reach the ground the defense would be useless in that condition. I then thought of putting the goal above the heads of the defense & their only chance to prevent a goal was to go out & get the ball or prevent his opponent from throwing to the goal.”

Tags:

“It Had Been A Crazy Summer In New York”

August 24, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Michael Steinberger has a fun, brief New York Times Magazine piece this weekend, “Queens Was Burning, Too,” which recalls another incendiary borough, which roiled all throughout the steamy months of 1977, the Summer of Sam, like John McEnroe on the wrong side of an “out” call at the U.S. Open. The opening:

“On a Sunday night midway through the 1977 U.S. Open, nearly 7,000 people gathered in the stadium at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, for a third-round match between the ninth-seeded Eddie Dibbs and an 18-year-old named John McEnroe, who was making his debut at the tournament that year. Two months earlier, McEnroe surprised the tennis world by reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon as a qualifier. His feathery touch dazzled the British fans while his combustive behavior led the British tabloids to nickname him Superbrat. Now McEnroe, who grew up in nearby Douglaston, looked poised to make a deep run at the Open. First, though, he had to get past Dibbs, a short, speedy player known as Fast Eddie.

Soon after the match started, a commotion in the stands halted play. A spectator had been shot in the leg; the bullet, the police later surmised, was fired from a nearby apartment building. At the time, New York was still reeling from the citywide blackout in July and the looting that followed. It had been terrorized for much of the summer by the Son of Sam, and now a scene straight out of Black Sunday, a film about a planned attack at the Super Bowl released earlier that year, seemed to be unfolding at the Open. ‘It had been a crazy summer in New York,’ says Bud Collins, the famed tennis commentator, who left the press box to investigate the disturbance, ‘and we were all up there wondering if another bullet was going to appear.’

Dibbs and McEnroe didn’t want to stick around to find out. As McEnroe later recalled, when an umpire told them what happened, Dibbs announced, ‘I’m out of here.’ Then the story was coincidentally revised: the fan hadn’t been shot, he’d gone into shock. The match eventually resumed with McEnroe beating Dibbs two sets to one. (At that time, early-round men’s matches at the Open were best-of-three.) Only later did they learn that it had indeed been gunfire.”

Tags: , , ,

“I Drove An Automobile Around The World Fifty Years Ago”

August 23, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

George Schuster, driver of the Thomas Flyer that won the New York-to-Paris “Great Race” of 1908, appears on I’ve Got a Secret five decades later. Prior to Schuster’s trek, no “automobilist” had driven across America during the winter.

Tags:

“A Dynamic Experience That Inspires Consumers To Change Their Physical Future”

August 16, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Videos | Permalink

Nike touts its forthcoming eyeD technology with a futuristic promo created by Tron Legacy director, Joseph Kosinski (no relation to Jerzy). It’s a virtual athletic experience that’s supposed to translate into actual physical exercise. Well, perhaps. But way more people exercise than when Nike was founded in 1964, and way more people are obese. So we’re clearly not primarily talking about an exercise problem but one more of diet.

From the eyeD marketing materials: “Imagine being able to see what it is like to run 100m in under 10 seconds, or leap over a small forward and throw down a game-changing dunk… With Nike eyeD fans can experience more than just 2D high definition video. They can see, feel and monitor their favorites athletes through streaming Nike eyeD video (play on 2D/3D). Stereo haptics allow you feel the heart pounding thrill of elite competition from anywhere. A dynamic experience that inspires consumers to change their physical future.”

Tags:

A Brief Note From 1877 About Mr. Fox’s Denial

August 15, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

From the March 21, 1887 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Mr. Thomas Fox, of Jamaica, says it is not true that he handled the birds in this town at the cock fight which took place last week in the hotel on the Jamaica road. He positively denies that he was present at the contest or that he was even aware that such a fight took place.”

Tags:

“Were You A Member Of The Sports World?”

August 12, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Jackie Robinson, a trailblazer and Hall of Famer who was politically complex, brought his legendary self to What’s My LIne? in 1969, three years before his death. At the 14:40 mark.

Tags:

“Yes, He Was A Mean One In His Time”

August 10, 2012 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Ty Cobb, one of the absolute greatest baseball players ever and one of the damndest sons of bitches to strap on the spikes, appears in 1955 on I’ve Got a Secret. Seems like a sweet grandfather here, but he strangled to death at least eight or ten peanut vendors during his career. Cobb shows up at roughly the 12:15 mark, just as Johnny Vander Meer walks off with his complimentary carton of Winston cigarettes. The reason why Youtube was invented.

Tags: ,

“As Long As All Athletes Have Access To Performance-Enhancing Drugs, Winning Would Still Require That Awe-Inspiring Skill”

August 9, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Drugs that are safe should be legal for everyone, and athletes should be able to use any legal drugs. In the near future, more and more safe performance-enhancing drugs and treatments will become available. The lives of the average person will be much improved by them, and athletic performance will hit new peaks. The idea that progress is somehow a perversion of the “purity” of competition is silly. From Yascha Mounk’s “Ban What Is Dangerous, Legalize What Is Not” in the New York Times:

“The distinction we currently draw between which substances should be allowed, and which should be prohibited, ultimately says a lot about our own arbitrary assumptions – and precious little about anything else. Fans admire athletes for their amazing skill and boundless determination. As long as all athletes have access to performance-enhancing drugs, winning would still require that awe-inspiring skill and determination. So, while there are good reasons to ban those drugs that pose significant health risks even when taken under medical supervision (dinitrophenol comes to mind), all other substances – like erythropoietin (EPO) and propranolol, for example – should be allowed.”

Tags:

“China Has Become An Olympic Powerhouse While India Has Underperformed”

August 6, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Economists Tyler Cowen (who has read more more books than all of us combined) and Kevin Grier have a smart article at Grantland that reveals how countries can improve their odds of earning medals at the Olympics. An excerpt about the divergent performances of China and India, two countries with similarly huge talent pools:

“Will China and India, the two countries with populations over 1 billion, dominate the Olympics of the future, especially as they become wealthier?

To date, their Olympic performances are almost polar opposites. China has become an Olympic powerhouse while India has underperformed. From 1960 to 2000, China won 80 gold medals, while India won only two. Over those 11 Olympiads, India only won eight total medals while China won over 200. While China has grown faster and is richer than India, the difference in wealth can’t begin to account for the chasm between their Olympic results.

In their book Poor Economics, MIT economists Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo attribute India’s dismal Olympic performance at least partly to very poor child nutrition. They document that rates of severe child malnutrition are much higher in India than in sub-Saharan Africa, even though most of sub-Saharan Africa is significantly poorer than India.

Even the significant segment of the Indian population that grows up healthy is at a disadvantage relative to China. The Chinese economic development model has focused on investment in infrastructure; things like massive airports, high-speed rail, hundreds of dams, and, yes, stadiums, world-class swimming pools, and high-tech athletic equipment. And while India is a boisterous democracy, China continues to be ruled by a Communist party, which still remembers the old Cold War days when athletic performance was a strong symbol of a country’s geopolitical clout.”

Tags: ,

“Willie, You Look Marvelous”

August 5, 2012 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Merv Griffin and Tallulah Bankhead interviewing Willie Mays in 1966. These three were inseparable.

Tags: , ,

“You’re A Loser–Get Off The Stage”

August 3, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Videos | Permalink

The 1980s was a particularly jingoistic and muscle-flexing time in America, and for awhile we were encouraged to care about our place among the world’s yacht-racing a-holes. Footage of original Tan Mom Dennis Conner leading us to a classy victory in 1988.

Tags:

“Oh Well, That’s A Jive Deal”

July 31, 2012 in Excerpts, Film, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

It’s difficult to think of another American who had a life just like Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known as polarizing comedian Stepin Fetchit. Born in 1902, Perry used a stereotypical lazy-man persona to become the first black actor to reach millionaire status. History hasn’t been kind to his screen character, as blacks and whites alike came in time to see it as degrading. But Perry felt otherwise; he believed it was a means to an end. He thought that his on-screen buffoonery, stereotypical as it was, transformed the popular perception of a black man in America from one of a fearsome or predatory figure to that of a lovable clown. And he felt he paved the way for other people of color to become screen stars who didn’t have to play the fool. Perhaps he’s right, though it’s still incredibly painful to watch. Perry became a lightning rod for criticism during the Black Power movement of the 1960s but never backed away from his beliefs.

A tangent: When he was young, Perry was friends with embattled boxer Jack Johnson. (They must have been quite the pair–the fighter who enjoyed making whites nervous and the entertainer who wanted to reassure them.) After he joined the Nation of Islam during the 1960s, Perry supposedly taught Johnson’s “anchor punch” to another controversial African-American heavyweight, Muhammad Ali. The Greatest used the maneuver to defeat Sonny Liston in their second fight. At the 8:00 mark of this passage from the 1970 documentary A.K.A. Cassius Clay, Perry and Ali ham it up for reporters.

Another Perry tangent, this one horribly tragic: His disturbed son, Donald Lambright, who used his stepfather’s name, committed what appeared to be a number of racially motivated murders. From the April 7, 1969 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Johnson said Lambright slept with a .30-caliber rifle in his bed.

‘Donald said he needed protection from whites,’ Johnson said. ‘He was paranoiac at the time.’

Johnson said Lambright was friendly with many black militant leaders and was a member of the Republic of New Africa, a black separatist organization.

‘Donald thought he had the answers to a lot of problems. And he felt the only way some of them could be resolved would be through violent action.’

At 9:14 a.m. yesterday, state police said, Lambright and his wife entered the Pennsylvania Turnpike where it crosses the Delaware River from New Jersey.

About 45 minutes later, Lambright began shooting.

Witnesses said most of the firing was done as he drove along, slowly weaving from lane to lane. They said he fired into eastbound traffic. Now and then he pulled over and fired from the roadside.•

Tags: , , , ,

“The Peace Of What Had Been Called The ‘Serene Olympics’ Was Shattered At Dawn This Morning”

July 30, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Videos | Permalink

Bob Costas protested the foolish decision by the IOC to not offer a moment of silence for the Israeli athletes who were murdered by terrorists during the 1972 Games in Munich. In 1991, Costas interviewed broadcasting legend Jim McKay, who held up (if barely) during those horrifying, exhausting hours.

“They’re all gone”:

Tags: ,

“I Want To Say First How Much Of A Pleasure It Is To See You Back In London”

July 29, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Muhammad Ali just made an appearance in London for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. Here’s footage from another Ali jaunt to that great city, when he recorded a special 1974 interview program. The boxer and activist was diminished physically at this point, mostly due to two titanic bouts with Joe Frazier. Neither fighter was ever the same again.

Tags: ,

“Something’s Gonna Happen Here Now–Here Comes The Spaceship”

July 27, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Olympic ceremonies, now routinely treated like blockbusters and “directed” by leading filmmakers, began to grow in size and proportion when the Games were staged in 1984 (with the help of a UFO) at the home of Hollywood. 

“Venues With No Obvious Long-Term Future…Were Designed To Be Dismantled Entirely”

July 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

Dempsey-Carpentier, Jersey City, 1921.

Hugh Pearman’s Wall Street Journal piece, “These Knock-Down, Shrinkable Games,” looks at the transient structures that are making the London Games fiscally sensible. It reminded me that wooden insta-stadia capable of seating 50,000 to 100,000 were routinely built in a couple of months nearly a century ago for major prizefights. They were razed soon after the bout. Tex Rickard built just such a momentary edifice for Jack Dempsey’s defense of the heavyweight title against Georges Carpentier on July 2, 1921. Two excerpts follow, one from Pearman and one about the ’21 Dempsey fight stadium:

From Pearman’s WSJ piece: “Some hankered after a flashier stadium to rival Beijing’s, but a firm policy was established once the bid was won in 2005: Mindful of the legacy of neglect common among many earlier Olympic-host cities, no white-elephant buildings were allowed for London. This was to be the knock-down Games: Venues with no obvious long-term future—such as the Olympic Stadium—were designed to be dismantled entirely, while others were to be shrinkable once the huge audiences for the Games dispersed.”

From the April 26, 1921 New York Times: “Although the plot embraces thirty-four acres the particular land Rickard has contracted for includes only about six-and-one-half acres. Upon this stretch of ground the promoter will erect his giant arena with its proposed seating capacity of over 50,000. The start will be made on the arena just as soon as the ground is levelled. Rickard expects that the arena will be completed within fifty days, without rushing the workmen or necessitating overtime. It is estimated that 100 carloads of lumber will be used in its construction.”

••••••••••

Great footage of the stadium at the outset of this video:

Tags: , , ,

1 Thought About The Joe Paterno Statue

July 23, 2012 in Politics, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

I’m completely in favor of its removal, but there are statues of slave owners in Washington D.C. Large ones. And one of Christopher Columbus in Central Park. We have a tendency to be selective about our morality.

Tags:

“Slow Joe Louis Whoop Me?!?”

July 20, 2012 in Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

I think Muhammad Ali in his prime would have beaten Joe Louis in his. But legendary trainer Cus D’Amato, who was still to mentor Mike Tyson down the line, argued in favor of the “Brown Bomber” when he and Ali debated the point in 1970, during the uncrowned champ’s Vietnam Era walkabout.

Tags: ,

“He’s Permanently Damaged His Credibility”

July 16, 2012 in Excerpts, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

I generally applaud contrarians, even when I completely disagree with them. People who go against the grain are very useful to the larger discussion. Baseball stats guru Bill James has long been one of those flies in the ointment pointing out truths about sports and beyond and making the conversation richer for it. But it will be tough to ever take his reasoning seriously again after his ludicrous defense of Joe Paterno’s role in enabling Jerry Sandusky’s disgraceful behavior. Why James would try to split hairs over minor points when the preponderance of evidence against Paterno and Penn State stares him in the face is beyond me. He’s permanently damaged his credibility. From James:

“The Freeh reports states quite explicitly and at least six times (a) that the 1998 incident did NOT involve any criminal conduct—on the part of Sandusky or anyone else—and (b) that Paterno had forced the resignation of Sandusky before the 1998 incident occurred … In any case, what EXACTLY is it that Paterno should have done? Fire him again? It is preposterous to argue, in my view, that PATERNO should have taken action after all of the people who were legally charged to take action had thoroughly examined the case and decided that no action was appropriate.”

Tags:

“He Said That My Kind Of Strength Was Unbelievable. It Was A One In A Million.”

July 16, 2012 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Thomas Inch, bicycling.

From “The Strongest Man in the World,” Burkhard Bilger’s ungated New Yorker piece about Brian Shaw, a Colorado man born to move mountains, and the new wave of strength competitions:

“In the summer of 2005, when Shaw was twenty-three, he went to Las Vegas for a strength-and-conditioning convention. He was feeling a little adrift. He had a degree in wellness management from Black Hills State University, in South Dakota, and was due to start a master’s program at Arizona State that fall. But after moving to Tempe, a few weeks earlier, and working out with the football team, he was beginning to have second thoughts. ‘This was a big Division I, Pac-10 school, but I was a little surprised, to be honest,’ he told me. ‘I was so much stronger than all of them.’ One day at the convention, Shaw came upon a booth run by Sorinex, a company that has designed weight-lifting systems for the Denver Broncos and other football programs. The founder, Richard Sorin, liked to collect equipment used by old-time strongmen and had set out a few items for passersby to try. There were some kettle bells lying around, like cannonballs with handles attached, and a clumsy-looking thing called a Thomas Inch dumbbell.

Inch was an early-twentieth-century British strongman famous for his grip. His dumbbell, made of cast iron, weighed a hundred and seventy-two pounds and had a handle as thick as a tin can, difficult to grasp. In his stage shows, Inch would offer a prize of more than twenty thousand dollars in today’s currency to anyone who could lift the dumbbell off the floor with one hand. For more than fifty years, no one but Inch managed it, and only a few dozen have done so in the half century since. ‘A thousand people will try to lift it in a weekend, and a thousand won’t lift it,’ Sorin told me. ‘A lot of strong people have left with their tails between their legs.’ It came as something of a shock, therefore, to see Shaw reach over and pick up the dumbbell as if it were a paperweight. ‘He was just standing there with a blank look on his face,’ Sorin said. ‘It was, like, What’s so very hard about this?’

When Shaw set down the dumbbell and walked away, Sorin ran over to find him in the crowd. ‘His eyes were huge,’ Shaw recalls. ‘He said, ‘Can you do that again?’ And I said, ‘Of course I can.’ So he took a picture and sent it to me afterward.’ Sorin went on to tell Shaw about the modern strongman circuit—an extreme sport, based on the kinds of feat performed by men like Inch, which had a growing following worldwide. ‘He said that my kind of strength was unbelievable. It was a one in a million. If I didn’t do something with my abilities, I was stupid. That was pretty cool.’

Three months later, Shaw won his first strongman event.”

•••••••••

Shaw deadlifting 1073 pounds this year with a torn biceps:

Tags: ,

Old Print Article: “Threatened John L. Sullivan’s Life,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (1889)

July 13, 2012 in Old Print Articles, Sports, Urban Studies | Permalink

“You’re an old woman, anybody could lick you.”

John L. Sullivan, gloved boxing’s first heavyweight champion, made a fortune and ended up a broken-down charity case like so many great pugilists. He had a wild ride of living large, drinking hard, acting on stage, losing money, being sued, etc. And sometimes he wasn’t the source of the problems that plagued him. From the October 27 1889 Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

“Boston, Mass.–‘I will kill John L. Sullivan,’ shouted Tommie Shea this afternoon. He was armed with a big revolver and had been drinking heavily. Instead of killing Sullivan, Shea lies at the City Hospital to-night with his throat cut from ear to ear by one of Sullivan’s companions and will probably die. Recently Liney Tracey, a Brooklyn boxer, who was a second for Sullivan in a fight with Kilrain, and who was booked for the champion’s latest proposed sparring tour, was talking with Shea. The latter had just been released form State Prison, having served three years for highway robbery.

Sullivan saw them, and, calling Tracy one side, said: ‘Keep away from that man, he’s a crook.’

Tracy very foolishly told Shea what Sullivan had said and Shea swore he would kill the champion as soon as he had opportunity.

Sullivan-Kilrain, 1889.

About 2 o’clock this afternoon Shea entered Sugarman’s pawn shop and bought a thirty-eight calibre bull dog revolver for $2.50.

Meeting friends later, he told them he had a revolver and what he intended to do. A policeman soon after induced Shea to give up the revolver. Shea left the officer, telling his friends he intended to buy another gun. Sullivan sat in a high chair in Hogarty’s barber shop at 4:30 o’clock this afternoon having his shoes polished when Shea entered and sat down in a chair for a shine. Then a wrangle of words began between the champion and the man in the chair. Remarks similar to this were made by Sullivan to Shea: ‘You’re an old woman, anybody could lick you.’

In the barber shop was Tommy Kelly, an ex-lightweight pugilist, who won his fame when he fought Siddons Mouse on an Island down the harbor some time ago. Kelly took a hand and a bloody hand it proved to be.

Kelly had been drinking. He seized one of the Italian’s razors, and, approaching Shea, drew it across his throat, cutting a gash from ear to ear. The blood flowed a stream and there was intense excitement in the little shop. Sullivan jumped from his seat, took the razor away from Kelly and kicked him out into the street. Shea was taken, weak from loss of blood, to the hospital, and late to-night the physicians declared him almost beyond hope of recovery. Kelly gave himself up to the police. So far he has made no statement as to his side of the case.”

Tags: , , ,

“How Many Of You Have Gotten Behind The Wheel Of A Car When You Really Shouldn’t Have Been Driving?”

July 11, 2012 in Science/Tech, Sports, Urban Studies, Videos | Permalink

Mechanical engineer Chris Gerdes at TED discussing robotic, driverless race cars. The human element will be lost.

Tags:

« Older entries § Newer entries »